


In Their Greatest Moments

by woodworms_before_breakfast



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Gen, Headcanon, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kind of Like Poetry?, My Attempt at Being Artistic, No Plot/Plotless, One Shot, Post-Canon, Try not to cringe, because we don't deserve to be happy, but i had to pour my angst somewhere, but on the extreme side, great as in either good or bad, it goes through each of their greatest moments, it was just such an interesting headcanon, it's basically outlining the show in flowery words, it's sort of a timeless thing, not exactly happy but not depressing either hopefully, oh yea speaking of, smiles are for cowards, so is this piece of work incidentally, there is no plot - i know, these tags are a chaotic mess and i apologize, you know what idk why i wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 11:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25848967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodworms_before_breakfast/pseuds/woodworms_before_breakfast
Summary: A timeless tale told in a timeless spirit as we discover how the Fates - how destiny - wronged the sun, the moon, the earth and the stars
Relationships: Gwen & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen & Morgana (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin & Morgana (Merlin), Morgana & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 39





	In Their Greatest Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a headcanon by @and_damntheconsequences :)

He bows before the child in a man’s body, a dying sun showing remorse for the times when it scorched those it was meant to warm. He flickers; the golden aura weeps out of his eyes in his tears as he drifts into regret and says, _I’m sorry_. He is the rising sun - even he shakes when a stronger force pulls at him. So he followed, and nearly burned the world to the ground before he found himself. The stars calmed him. The earth forgave him.

He places the sigil in the pale, trembling hand. Sincerity radiates from him, striking rays of love, as he silently professes his heart. _Just take it_. They gaze at each other in the firelight, and he feels at home. Knowing that, together, they would march into the heart of the darkest hour. Knowing that, alone, he would end his people’s suffering. Even the sun yields to stormy days once in a while.

He forgot that stars belonged in the night. He was blinded by his eagerness, his desperation. He knows now, and as he falls off the cliff in the west, he watches darkness begin to envelope his kingdom from the opposite horizon. It isn’t until he is almost gone that he realizes that the stars still light up the night. The moon does not. He has no light left to lend her.

Arthur is the sun. He shone in his best moments and burned in his worst.

She knows the exact moment she began to wane. She had hidden her dark side for so long, the craters were overflowing with fear and hate. It was easy for someone so manipulative, so cunning, to show her the light and guide her to darkness. The full moon smirked and began to swivel, slowly but surely. Nobody saw it coming until they looked up into the night sky and wondered where the bright, shining orb had gone.

She regrets that the stars were the first to notice. Many a night had they shared together, laughing and twinkling in the sky, a beautiful pair, everyone below gazing up at them longingly. They had helped each other so many times, each shining brighter when some unwelcome cloud dimmed the glow of the other. She tells herself the stars betrayed her first, but she knows they were both to blame. Yet so were the clouds.

She resents the sun. There was a time when she rejoiced in her duty: she was glad to shine upon a sleeping world when he retreated under the horizon. She knows now, how she had been used. How she had been denied the glory she deserved. The silver diadem never satisfied her lust for gold.

Morgana is the moon. Her beauty is breathtaking, but no longer full of love.

She opened her eyes first to the night. She loved the moon for its gentle glow before it bared its dark side. She loved the stars for the way they mapped out what few could bear to read, never wavering in her love even when the stars themselves did. She did not know true love until day broke and the sun rose, casting a hot flash of light upon her that hurt at first before giving way to overwhelming warmth.

She weeps when the sun sets, longing for another moment of golden bliss. She weeps even more miserably when night falls and she realizes she cannot find the moon. The stars gaze at her softly, apologizing, but she has already forgiven them. There was never anything to forgive.

Guinevere is the earth. Even as the sun, the moon and the stars cycle in the sky above, she must go on, constant and strong.

He lives on. Timeless, because he is made of too many things to ever fade entirely. Painless, because he has become numb and can no longer feel. Hopeless, because he has lost all that gave him hope.

He forgot all reason and let the poetry go to his head because his heart was elsewhere. He forgot what he was and yearned for a different world, one that was not what he had been destined to create. He forgot how to put on a mask and allowed people to read more from his constellations than was really there. He failed, in the end.

He does not shine as bright as they did, for how can stars compete with the sun and moon? He is not as strong as she, for stars may flicker and die out even as the earth continues to spin. There was always a choice. He listened to the wrong voices and became cruel. At least, that is what he reminds himself now, as he looks upon the empty universe, blaming himself for all that was and all that no longer is.

He could have saved her, could have faced the darkness of night by her side. Instead, he turned away and declared himself a thread in the tapestry of the day, even as his soul was shining bright in the night. The part he left behind began to fight her. The sun was not there to watch or stop him. The earth was, but didn’t.

Merlin is the stars. He betrayed himself in his darkest moment.


End file.
